The EU is a Being, specifically an organisation

In terms of datasets, the EU is a Being, specifically an organisation. However, in the same way as states and unlike any other organisation, an informational archipelago has no specific purpose. It has only a function, which is present simply because of its existence: system integration for its member states. This is both an impediment and an opportunity. The former, because the EU is not itself a state, and it therefore cannot assume state-like functions, that is, it will always follow what first and foremost preoccupies its member states and their citizens, whatever purposes they set for themselves to each time. At the same time, however, it is an opportunity because, liberated from state-like preoccupations (internal politics and strife prominent among them), it can carry out its function unhindered. For the larger part of its life so far, the EU has given priority to market considerations out of expedience; what better (in the sense of quicker) way to avoid war, if not by financially integrating the previously conflicting parties? Having accomplished this quick, superficial fix, the EU has recently moved in the direction of influencing the formation of values, thus establishing a distinct ‘European way of life’ and a morality of its own, a project that remains underdeveloped. The question, however, remains: how can the component parts best be integrated without damage? For the moment, the solution intuitively (and understandably) adopted replicates the state–individual relationship, along the lines of liberalism: individuals have a core with which the state should not interfere, and this model seems to be followed at the EU level too (through the triple effect of its principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and EU legal supremacy). Is this the best way forward? Could what has effectively not been satisfactorily resolved for humans after more than 2000 years of intense thinking (see §26.00.05, on the inherent conundrum that individualistic theories have to deal with) work for states? Essentially, the same problem remains: states know everything because they are the necessary individualisation mechanisms for their citizens, and the EU (its system integration ever-expanding) is on its way to becoming exactly the same thing for its member states.

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